Some electronic components, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), have polarities. The polarities of such electronic components are required to be aligned in a certain direction for inspection or mounting of the electronic components.
In order to solve the above challenge, a disclosure of an alignment apparatus for electronic components has been hitherto disclosed (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-332113). This alignment apparatus takes pictures of the appearances of electronic components that move along a conveying path from a container with a camera to determine the polarity directions of the electronic components on the basis of polarity display, which represents an appearance feature. The alignment apparatus excludes the electronic components having polarity directions different from a certain direction from the conveying path and returns the electronic components in the container to align the polarities of the electronic components in the certain direction.